A company statement making the rounds of media reports this week went: "Due to market conditions and projected staffing levels required to meet client needs, we are reducing global headcount by approximately 500 across our investment banking division and shared services division.''

Credit Suisse's investment banking division includes merger advisory, fixed income, equities trading and research, and securities lending. It employed 20,600 people at the end of 2007. "Shared services" refers to various corporate support activities, such as legal, IT and operations.

The company is expected to report a loss for the first quarter on Thursday. On March 20, Credit Suisse said it had been profitable through February but most likely would not be profitable for the quarter, due to "difficult conditions in March." At that time the bank also said an internal review of positions that had been mispriced by its traders resulted in a 1.68 billion Swiss francs ($1.69 billion at the March 31 exchange rate) write-down of asset values for the first quarter and a 1.18 billion Swiss francs ($1.04 billion at the year-end exchange rate) write-down for last year's fourth quarter.

Even while laying off bankers and staff, Credit Suisse has said it continues to hire people in growth segments such as algorithmic trading, emerging markets, commodities, derivatives, life finance and prime services, according to Financial News. On Monday, it announced 13 hires in global commodities.